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Uncle Robbie (1863-1934). A durable catcher for 17 seasons with 3 teams, Robinson is credited as the 1st to play directly behind the plate at all times. Uncle Robbie once caught 5 games in two days. He also had 7 hits & 11 RBI in a single game. After his playing days were over, Robinson went on to manage for 18 seasons.

Edd J. Roush (1893-1988) was an Indiana farm boy who knew his own mind. He built a Hall of Fame career on doing things his way. Spring training? Not for Edd, he stayed in shape. Use a bat heavier than any other player? Why not? His farm-bred arm strength allowed him to hit the ball wherever he chose with the weight of the bat doing most of the work. Stand still in the box awaiting the pitch? Not for Edd. He'd move his feet after the ball left the pitcher's hand, positioning himself according to his read. Endure management's miserly ways? No, Edd would hold out every year for a fairer contract. He'd skip to pirate leagues (the Federals) if necessary to find a better salary, something he had done as a school-boy player in Hoosier country and continued throughout his long and storied major league tenure. It took a few years in the bigs and a curious impatience by renowned manager John McGraw to get Edd to Cincinnati and the stage on which he would set records. Twice he edged out Rogers Hornsby for batting titles. He led the Reds to the Series championship in 1919, only to have that accomplishment tarnished by scandal. There is little doubt he was right in asserting that his club was better than Chicago's and really won it fair and square. During his twelve years with the Reds, Roush's batting average was .331. He never struck out more than 25 times in a season. He was fast on the bases and a terror in center, regarded as perhaps the premier defender of the Dead Ball era with Tris Speaker the competition.

McGraw sent young Edd from the Giants to Cincy in 1916 along with two other future Hall-of-Famers: Bill McKechnie and Christy Mathewson. Matty was tickled to get a manager position and Edd and Bill were thrilled to get out from under the tough taskmaster McGraw

When Edd threw out the ball at the last game played at Crosley Field, Joe Morgan said Roush was “the best of us all.”

Jacob Ruppert Jr. (1867-1939) became the 304th inductee into Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 2013, remedying an oversight many assumed had already been handled. This beer & real estate baron, National Guard Colonel & US Congressman took a second-rate NY franchise, hired Miller Huggins to manage it, saw that the mighty southpaw up in Boston had more potential at the plate than on the mound, built Yankee Stadium and tailored it to Ruth’s swing, hired the likes of Gehrig, DiMaggio and a clutch of other future Hall of Famers, and won the franchise’s first 10 pennants & 7 World Series titles. In all, Ruppert created the most storied sports organization in history and forever changed the game as the Dead Ball gave way to the Lively Ball. He died five months before there was a Hall in Cooperstown and now, just 74 years later, he’s in it.

Was instrumental in creating the office of Commissioner and hiring Landis as czar in 1920

Initially fought to rename the Yankees as theKnickerbockers after his family’s flagship brew

George Herman Ruth, Jr. (1895-1948) is the Colossus of modern baseball. As pitcher and hitter, Ruth dominated his times as no other athlete, leading his teams to 10 World Series’ appearances and 7 titles in 22 years, winning all three World Series games he pitched with a .87 ERA and belting 15 home runs with a .326 average and 1.214 OPS across his 41 World Series’ games. He rewrote the record book, including most prodigious clouts ever: 575’ in Detroit and the longest HR out of Forbes Field in its 60 year history (his last ML hit). A complex man and player, not all Ruth’s achievements covered him in glory: only man to end a Series by being caught stealing (’23); ejected after walking first batter, giving way to Ernie Shore who allowed no others to reach base; refusing to play the “sun field” after one dropped fly. But oh the hitting! It took Mickey Mantle 18 years at the Stadium to match Ruth’s HRs in 12.

The Babe was Gargantua incarnate: crude, ferocious, primitive and bigger than life. And also forever young, with a magnificent heart and generous spirit. The Icon of the Age

Louis Santop (Loftin) (1890-1942) was a prodigious HR slugger & indomitable catcher in the Negro Leagues. He averaged .406 lifetime, caught two of the hardest throwing pitchers of all-time (Smokey Joe Williams & Dick Redding) and endured behind the plate for an astonishing 15 seasons despite the privations and rigor of black baseball in America in his day. A jovial giant, Top was a fan favorite & sure-fire draw with his ability to throw a ball over outfield fences before games & hit it even further during games.

It is told the Newark park had an ad promising a suit to players who hit the 440’ centerfield fence. The sign was removed after Santop hit it three times in one game

Played for great Negro League teams including the NY Lincoln Giants and the Hilldale Club

Herman A. Schaefer (1876-1919) was the Clown Prince of baseball for nearly two decades in the early years of the last century. “Germany” (or “Liberty” as he thought a better nickname after WWI began) was beloved for his antics on the field. In its obituary, the New York Times said he was “one of the most popular figures on the diamond.” Born into the tough German immigrant district of south Chicago, the stocky Schaefer came up through semi-pro ball and soon made it to the Cubs in late 1901. A slump the following year sent him to the PCL and other minor league teams before the Tigers brought him back to the bigs in '05. Legends surrounded the colorful Schaefer and it is hard to tell fact from fiction. He was said to have called shots long before the Babe, make dramatic self-narrated trips around the bases and harangue mercilessly some of the greats of his day. One of his most storied feats involved his famed steal of first, accomplished from second base in order to tempt a run-scoring errant throw. After his death, baseball officially outlawed such depredations. John McGraw hired Schaefer as a scout in 1919 but the bantam joker succumbed to a TB-induced hemorrhage on a train trip to check on NY talent.

Germany played for six MLB teams including the Federal League's Newark Peppers. He closed his career with Cleveland months before his untimely death

His lifetime .257 average belied his ability to deliver clutch hits, seemingly at will, when the moment was right

A Detroit sportswriter effused: “Germany Schaefer was the soul of baseball itself, with all its sorrows and joys, the born troubadour of the game.”

Raymond William Schalk (1892-1970) was too boyish and too small for the cop at Comiskey Park to believe he could be a ballplayer. But what Schalk lacked in physical stature he more than made up in energy, determination and innate talent. He redefined the role of the ML catcher, starring for the White Sox from 1912 through 1928 en route to the Hall of Fame. Along the way, Schalk proved that catchers can steal bases, they can make double-plays, they can back-up at every base. And Schalk didn’t merely field his position better than the others of his era, he had a gift for working with pitchers. He caught four no-hitters including a 1922 perfect game. And he knew something was wrong when his best mates wouldn’t throw what he called for in the ’19 Series. Absolved of any complicity, Schalk went on to be player-manager of the team.

Still holds records at his position, including 11 straight years catching over 100 games

Frederick Carlisle Snodgrass (1887-1974) broke into MLB with the Giants in ’08 and became a mainstay in the outfield by virtue of his speed & hitting. As proficient as he was at bat & on base, Snodgrass spent his career mired in controversy, especially on the big stage of the World Series: intentionally spiking Frank Baker, dropping a fly ball & later bringing down the house in Fenway after defiantly challenging the home folks. That incident prompted Boston’s mayor (“Vote often and early for James Michael Curley”) to stride on field and demand Snodgrass’ ouster. Fittingly, Fred was traded to the Bosox the next season.

Haunted throughout his life by the 1912 Series gaff, Snodgrass was spared the indignity of reading the headline on his NY Times obituary: “Fred Snodgrass, 86, Dead; Ball Player Muffed 1912 Fly.”

Harry Hooper, Boston’s fleet slugger, was robbed by Snodgrass on the next play. Hooper always defended Snodgrass, citing numerous other miscues that led to the Giants’ loss that day

Tristram E. Speaker (1888-1958) enjoyed a long and storied career as perhaps the greatest all-around center fielder in the game. Led the Red Sox to two titles and, upon moving to Cleveland over a salary dispute, led the Indians to a championship in 1920. He still holds MLB records for doubles and outfield assists.

Career batting average: .345

Also still holds MLB record for unassisted double plays by an outfielder

Speaker’s glove came to be known as “the place where triples go to die”

George Tweedy Stallings (1867-1929) got two hits in his 20 major league at bats. He managed the Phillies to 74 wins and 104 defeats in his first two years as pilot of a big league team. He did a bit better with Detroit and NY when he joined the American League but would end his career as field general with a mediocre sub-.500 record. So why is this fellow known as the “Miracle Man?” He left the Highlanders for Boston in 1913 and brought signs of life to Beantown’s beleaguered Braves. They rose to a fifth place finish after bottoming out each of the previous four years. But, oh what joy 1914 would bring. That season started as dismally as usual for a Stallings-led squad. On July 15 the Braves trailed the Giants by 11 ½. Suddenly the stars aligned. Boston would end that regular season by gaining 22 games on NY. They rode their 10 ½ game lead into the Series with the Athletics and swept them in four. The team would forevermore be the “Miracle Braves” and George earned the nickname he carried the rest of his life.

Bill James credits Stallings with being the first to deploy platooning as an offensive tool rather than a cover for weakness

The Georgia native went on to reestablish baseball in Montreal and, with his partners, built the stadium where Jackie Robinson prepped for his historic debut in Brooklyn in ‘47

Charles Dillon Stengel (1890-1975) played and managed over half a century, seeing the game go from the Dead Ball Era to “Can’t anybody here play this game?” Casey broke in with Brooklyn in 1912, then the Pirates, Phillies, Giants and Braves, compiling a respectable .284 BA with 60 HRs. Stengel won the Giants’ two Series victories in ’23 with home runs. But it was not as a player that Casey entered the Hall of Fame. He managed his way to Cooperstown riding 1905 lifetime wins at the helm of the New York clubs and Boston from ’34-’65. He played for one world-title team and managed 7 more. The venerable and voluble manager became a fount of baseball wisdom and humor, endearing him to generations of fans.

Only man to wear the uniforms of the 4 NY clubs

Came out of retirement to helm the hapless Mets through their painful early years, giving the Old Perfessor “new ways to lose I never knew existed before.”

Amos Aaron Strunk (1889-1979) was added to Connie Mack’s growing assemblage of speedy players in 1908 and then sent to Milwaukee to get major-league-ready. In and out with injuries (much of his career) Strunk began to shine on defense. By 1913 he was touted as the best defender of all-time. In ‘16 Baseball Magazine proclaimed him to be in the company of Cobb and Speaker. Mack witnessed Strunk’s contributions to three national championships, 1911, 1913, and 1914, read the reviews and still said Strunk was underrated. Sold to Boston when Mack was rebuilding, Amos couldn’t adjust to Beantown despite another title and returned to the Athletics in 1919. After another stint with the White Sox, Mack got his prized centerfielder back one final time in 1924 but the toll of too many outfield collisions brought an end to a 17-year career where the left-hander compiled a .284 average. Never a big base-stealer, Strunk was among the best at advancing on the basepaths. Mack’s famed “double squeeze play” owed much to Strunk’s ability to get a jump from second and score right behind the runner who had been at third when the bunt got down.

Strunk lived to see 90, having spent over half a century in the insurance business following his retirement from the game

James Francis Thorpe (1888-1953) grew up in the Sac and Fox nation in Oklahoma, a hardscrabble existence that saw him in and out of boarding schools. Orphaned and troubled, the teenager found himself in faraway Pennsylvania and came under the tutelage of the renowned Pop Warner. Thorpe’s athletic skill would carry him to heights few have attained, a Renaissance man of sport, bestride the 20th Century. Acclaimed as the world’s greatest athlete in the 1912 Olympics where Thorpe played in two exhibition baseball games, presaging a professional career. A rare “free agent” in the era of the reserve clause, he was able to choose the Giants over the last-place Browns during the 1913 season. He played sporadically but went to the World Series and was the star of the global tour of Giants/White Sox players that off-season.

Team owners caromed Thorpe from team to team with limited playing time, ending his MLB tenure with the Boston Braves in 1919

Hit the ball that Hippo Vaughn misplayed, ending the remarkable “double-no-hitter” in 1917

Joseph Bert Tinker (1880-1948) sparkled at short, helping the Cubs to 4 pennants and 2 Series wins. He and fellow rookie Johnny Evers turned their first double-play to Frank Chance on Sep 13, 1902. A fight over a cab ride left Tinker and Evers estranged for years, but didn’t prevent them from playing 2nd “like one man, not two.” Tinker was widely held to be second only to Honus Wagner at SS, leading the league in many fielding categories. As skilled as he was afield, Tinker was also one of the great clutch hitters. Christy Mathewson deemed him the NL player he least wanted to see.

On June 28, 1910 Tinker became one of a handful to steal home twice in a game

Asked to leave the Cubs when Evers was made manager in 1913 but filled that role himself after a hiatus with the Federal League

James Leslie Vaughn (1888-1966) threw to his catcher for an easy out in the tenth inning of a game against Cincinnati one cold afternoon in Chicago. The catcher stood with his hands at his side, the ball bounced off his chest protector and Hippo’s no-hit bid ended, along with the ballgame. The opposing pitcher, Fred Toney, recorded three more outs to get his own no-hitter. Vaughn’s response after such a curious debacle?: “…I wasn’t sore, I’s just lost another ballgame, that’s all.” Clearly Vaughn shed any disappointment as he went out the next season and led the Cubs and the league, winning the “triple crown” for pitchers. Hippo was one of the premier hurlers in baseball over a six year span but his loss to the Reds in the game’s only “double-no-hitter” will forever leave an indelible mark.

Recorded five 20-win seasons en route to 178 career victories

Pitched for NY 1908-12, Washington in 1912 and the Cubs from 1913-1921

No one knows how this strong 6’4” 215 lb workhorse acquired the unflattering nickname

Robert Hayes Veach (1888-1925) took over in left field at Navin Field in Detroit on Sept 6, 1912 and held that post until 1924 when the Tigers traded him to the Red Sox. In his decade-plus as wingman to Ty Cobb, along with Harry Heilmann and Sam Crawford, Veach was part of the most potent outfield in history. Many, including Bill James, peg the 1915 Tigers’ outfield the best of all-time. Because he played somewhat in the shadow of these greats, and perhaps because the Tigers never won a World Series, this veteran with a lifetime .310 average and top-of-the-league production at the plate and in left, never made it to Cooperstown. As good as he was before the war years, 1919 was Veach’s pinnacle. He led the AL in hits, doubles and triples. Only Cobb bested his .355 average and only Ruth topped his 101 RBI and 279 total bases. In 1920 Veach became the first Tiger to hit for the cycle. From 1915 to 1922, nobody drove in more runs or had more extra-base hits than Bobby Veach.

Playing for the Yankees in his final season, on Aug 9, 1925, Bobby pinch-hit for Ruth, the first time that had happened since Babe left the mound

Veach ended his dazzling ML career with pennant-winning Washington that same year

Johannes Peter Wagner (1874-1955) was, simply, the greatest shortstop who ever played the game. The Pittsburgh icon was among the first five selections to Cooperstown in 1936 in recognition of overall prowess afield, at bat and on base unparalleled in baseball. Even his closest rival for “All-Time Best” honors, Ty Cobb, said Honus was “maybe the greatest star ever to take the diamond.” Badgered mercilessly by ‘Nuf Ced’ McGreevy’s Royal Rooters in the ’07 Series with Boston, Wagner was deeply wounded by his mediocre performance. He achieved some vindication 2 years later, leading the Pirates over Cobb’s Tigers.

Space doesn’t allow a fair summary of Wagner’s hitting records. A marvel at the plate.

A Pirates’ coach for 39 years, Hans mentored several future Hall of Famers

Rhoderick John Wallace (1873-1960) had a Hall of Fame career as one of the top shortstops for 24 years before going on to one of the longest tenures in MLB as coach, manager, scout and even a short stint as an umpire. Playing primarily in St. Louis for the Cardinals and Browns, Wallace set records, including a mournful one: longest career by a player to never make the World Series.

Too good a fielder to stay on the mound, became the premier defensive SS of his era

In 1911, Pirates’ owner declared Wallace the one player in the AL he desired above all others

Edward Augustine Walsh (1881-1959) still holds the ML record for ERA with 1.82 lifetime and hurled himself into the Hall of Fame as one of the most dominant and durable pitchers of the early 20th century. He needed a year off in 1913 but felt the White Sox needed him more. He ruined his arm and effectively ended his career demanding more of that right arm than it could give after 195 wins and 1,736 SOs.

Reputed to have guided the owner’s architect into shaping the AL park to Walsh’s liking, making Comiskey Park a “pitcher’s park” for 80 years

Earned “workhorse” status with an average of 395 innings per season 1907-1912

George Daniel Weaver (1890-1956) climbed to a lofty height during his baseball career and plummeted to an historic low that would test any man. Buck’s dad insisted he forego his mother’s funeral to begin his pro career in the White Sox system. He ended his career when Judge Landis banished him from the game along with 7 fellow Sox. In between, this gregarious, cheerful soul basked in the shadows of the Great Pyramid sporting a fez during the 1913 world tour and danced for joy after Comiskey’s club locked up the ’17 Series, a team he had led in batting and afield. Although pilloried with his teammates for throwing the 1919 Series, Weaver played errorless ball, hit .324, and was never accused of taking money. He would spend the rest of his life trying to clear his name. After Cicotte and Jackson confessed, the Sporting News headlined: “Chicago Fans Grieve Most for Weaver and Still Hope for Him.”

Played exclusively for the White Sox (1912-1920), averaging .272, and was the only banned player to remain in Chicago

Zachariah Davis Wheat (1888-1972) starred in left field for the Brooklyn Superbas/Robins/Dodgers and still holds team bests in hits, doubles, triples, RBI and total bases. Wheat defied the Deadball trend of choking up on the bat, swinging away with a “smashing swipe” according to one reporter. Yet, his stylish fielding drew the most praise (“the finest craftsman of them all.”)

5 of his 9 HRs in 1914 were over the fence, rare in that era

Again defying tradition, used a light (40oz) bat and a wrist-snap unheard of then

James Leslie Wilkinson (1878-1964) loved to play baseball and he loved to see everyone play the game. He organized women’s teams, black and Cuban teams, and the multi-hued All-Nations team. He barnstormed with the House of David and brought night baseball to the heartland. His KC Monarchs sent more black players to the majors than any other Negro League club and eleven of his players are in Cooperstown. Being the sole white owner in the black circuits may have seemed an unlikely role for this modest Midwesterner, but “Wilkie’s” integrity and fairness earned the trust of Rube Foster when he organized the NNL in 1920. Few men of any background have left the legacy that Wilkinson established.

Won 17 titles and two Colored World Series

An inveterate entrepreneur and showman, Wilkie brought the joy of America’s game to all of America thru the Roaring Twenties, the depths of Depression, and the darkness of WWII

Joseph Williams (1886-1951) may have been the best pitcher never to appear in the major leagues. He starred in the Negro Leagues and in Cuba and Mexico over a 27-year career. His best year was 1914 (an amazing 41-3). Playing against MLB players in barnstorming games, Williams compiled a 20-7 record over the “best” in the game.

At age 44 in 1930, closed his career with a 1-0, 12-inning win striking out 27 KC Monarchs

That same year, in his only confrontation with the rising star, beat Satchel Paige 1-0.

Howard Ellsworth “Smoky Joe” Wood (1889-1985) was honored at age 95 with a doctorate from Yale, the institution for whom he coached for 20 years following his ML career. In 1912 for the Red Sox, Wood joined an elite list of 30-game winners, going 34-5. In one of the most dramatic duels ever, Wood defeated Walter Johnson 1-0, himself fresh off a 16-game win streak, gaining his 14th straight and would go on to tie Johnson’s AL record string. Wood then climaxed his phenomenal year by leading the Sox over McGraw’s Giants in a Series for the ages at brand-new Fenway Park.

A broken thumb in ’13 left Wood impaired, but he went on to a fine OF role for the Indians